Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-15
HOW TO MAKE BONNETS,
Inside Information Concerning the Work of
mtlliners.
New York Mail and Express.

Inside Information Concerning the Work OF
| MilIiners.
New York Mail and Express
There are 10000 milliners in New York
and Brooklyn-sbout one bonnet-ouilder
to every fifty adult women. Ten years
ago an artistic milliner was something OF
rare bird. To-day, it is safe to say, the
best New York mllliners are hardly ex-
Celled in the world. The imported bon
net is still looked upon by society women
as the model Of what bonnet ought to
be, but, in spite of the continuous growth
OF wealth and dress expenditure, imported
bonnets have appreciably diminished in
number in the past five years.
"Your bonnet is in the custom house,
Mrs. Browne; it came by La Champagne,
cut the steamer was late IN getting in and
those officials are so tiresome that don't
expect TO see my goods before this time
tomorrow. So sorry to disappoint you {"
Mrs. Browne looked vexed IS well as
disappointed. "Isn't that too dreadful?
had my plans all made to start for
Lenox tonight, but there's no use going
without that carriage bonnet from VirOt
Do send it around the instant it comes
in"
At this point, in an actual discussion
not many days since, TheophiIe, the little
French milliner's little boy, who had just
trotted out from the penetraIia of the
work rooms, came to the rescue of both
parties with the zeal of enfant terrible.
"They are trying it on, maman," was
what he said. "Estelle has it just finis."
Less than an hour later, in fashion,
able millinery show room, l noticed q
blonde beauty enjoying unslloyed bliss in
the contemplation Of a dainty thing in
blue and gold. "You don't need to tell
me, madam" she said, turning to the
waiting milliner, "thst this is French
There is nobody in America who could
have given such droop to that feather"
The milliner said nothing, and the
brown-eyed girl who had arranged the
droop of that feather and great many
other equally important feathers, stood
! at my side and smiled.
So much is expected of bonnet nova
| days that competent bonnetmaker has a
trade requiring not skilled labor merely,
| but artistic capabilities, and, for no small
number of craftswomen, sn apprenticeship
longer and more severe than the average
doctor or lawyer undergoes in the pro-
fessiOnal schools. Millinery, indeed, has
grown into profession, but one which
when mastered thoroughly, pays 8
woman better than almost any wage.
earning pursuit she can enter.
To become flrst-class WorkWomsn re.
quires from six TO seven years. time Ac-
cording to the figures given me by the
head of the largest establishment in New
York, it is worth from SIS to $50 week
for mediocre to good hands, $50 to SIS
or even higher figures for trimmers ana
designers Of exceptional talent.
spent al hour yesterday in millinery
workroOm where some sixty women are
employed, and watched the evolution OF
a round hat. The raw m steriaI of a hat
is its frame, aud this went through the
hands of the chief designer.
"This is a French molel," she sstd,
land altogether too low crowned anc
flst-rimmed. French fashions Jump from
one extreme to another; last season hats
were high; this season they must be low
That is Partisan doctrine, but in modify
ing it for American tastes one must
shade of little more gradually" a few
touches with the scissors and mSnipula-
tions with the fingers gave the inchoate
hat more jsunty and tip-tilted look, and
then it went TO miss in Der teens With
long yellow brsids Of hair who ssssby her
self at window.
81 sew wires about the briuss of hass
and straw bonnets," she told me. 81
have been here eight months and they 4fe
just beginning to let me Spu,
IN silk Innings, shipping some leRgths
of brown silk for the purNDse. {"
The hat whose fate WAS wstchin9 wen
from her hands to those of d pretty
girl somewhat older and with nearly two
years. experience, who faced'dt oaintily
with velvet. It was then passed to
milliner proper, as the word is used in
somewhat restricted technical sense, who
prepared 1t for the trimmer. The mIllineT
put band of phessant's plumage about
the rim and covered the crown with
glossy plush, blending shades of brown,
bronze and olive to match the feathers
The milliner was piquant brunette. She
had oeen st work nearly four years and
aspired shortly to become trimmer
This important parsonage, who keeps
about four milliners busy supplying her
with material, received the hat last of all,
mounted it on the ends of her fingers,
gaZad At it refiectively for q minute, and
hen proceeded to cOncoct bow, which
she planted in exactly the right place on
the front and pronounced it done.
The little apprentice girl who sews
wires doesn't earn more than S. or So
week. The Older girl, who can be trust
ed TO cut velVets and pushes for facings,
is paid anywhere from Sc to $40. The
milliner, who IS often a woman who
hoped to be trimmer, but never deYel,
oped ability enough for that grade OF the
profession, does nothing but put the ous
er cover of lace or plush or beads upon
bonnet, and is paid from $40 to SA A,
trimmer has to nave inventive gifts and
besomething of designer. II she has
genius in this line she can name her own
wages. r
Millinery Is becoming so much Ct a fine
art that 1t attracts better educated girls
every year. 1t is going to be a profess
sion to which it will pay them to turn